Adding a second bank of batteries

[John Richard]

Our boat has a two 4D house batteries and a single dedicated starting battery. I am wondering if it would work to add a second bank of 4 six volt golf cart batteries. Is it possible to add these in another bank with their own battery selector switch? Or, would I tie the two 4D's into one bank and have the 6 volt bank in another? Or, should I just do away with the 4D's and keep the golf cart batteries as the house bank? Help me out,John Richards/v Jack's Place

 

[Steve Dion]

3rd bank

John:If I where you I'd look at totally isolating these 6 volt batteries from the rest of your system. I would get some advice on an isolator/combiner for this system. You can get rid of your A/B switches and put each bank on an ON/OFF switch. Use a Blue Sea 8080 as your primary switch. With this setup each battery bank will stand on it's own. If you have problems with the 4D, 6V or starter battery you will not have a mixed bank of different batteries with different ages.

 

[Steve]

I have a wiring diagram...

I have a dual house bank along with a starter battery on my H320. Send me your snail mail address and I'll be happy to mail you a copy.Stevesestyles@yahoo.com

 

[Will]

Batteries

Golf cart batteries are made to be deeply discharged regularly and to be knocked around, which sounds like a great match for a sailboat. Unfortunately, they are also designed to be charged slowly, over a long period of time every day. Not the usual situation on a sailboat. Unless you can charge the batteries as intended, you will kill them well before their time. If you don't have the charging capacity to fully and properly charge them each time – again an untimely and expensive death. West Marine's catalog and amplepower.com have excelent articles on how to design, set up and maintain batteries.